HEALTH
You can feel really bad. It signif icantly impairs our reaction time and increases
What are the risks of not getting enough sleep?
OUR NEEDS, AND ALSO “THE ARCHITECTURE”, OR QUALITY OF OUR SLEEP CHANGE AS WE AGE PHYSIOLOGICALLY, THE DEEP SLOWWAVE SLEEP PHASES BECOME SHORTER.
the risk of accidents. Our cognitive abilities will also be affected. If you deprive yourself of your physiological needs, you will decrease your ability to remember things. You will clearly evolve below your natural capacity, consistently. I would never recommend that anyone shortens their nights to increase their levels of efficiency!
Peop l e a r e becomi ng increasingly aware of the importance of getting a good night's sleep and the health risks associated with poor sleep. I used to get questions
In the past, your patients sometimes consulted you to reduce their sleep time. This is no longer the case. How do you explain this?
Many of these gadgets aim to judge the quality of sleep by analysing the phases of sleep. Without putting electrodes on the head, this
More and more technologies are available on the market to monitor our sleep. Are these "sleep techs" useful?
from my patients about how sleep is broken down into phases, with the intention of taking medication to stay awake; I don't get any such requests any more. Now my patients are mainly interested in reducing levels of fatigue and improving their performance.
is impossible. Some of my patients come to me with the sleep phases that their watch has recorded. But this can only measure movement or lack of movement; it doesn’t yet mean that the patient was in a particular sleep phase. Other devices measure heart rate; but this too is approximate. On the other hand, other technologies such as sensors can be used to confirm that someone is suffering from snoring, which may explain some disorders. As for connected mattresses, once apnoea has been diagnosed, they can be used to treat it by temporarily raising the sleeper when snoring occurs.
I f you depr i ve yoursel f chronically, the lack builds up. But the brain and our body have an enormous capacity to recover. One study showed that after eleven days of sleep deprivation, the subjects recovered within three nights. There is a difference between taking it when recommended by a doctor and when it is self- medicated. A few years ago,
Does a lack of sleep really accumulate or is it enough to get a few 'normal' nights in a row to restore some balance?
What do you think about taking melatonin to restore sleep?
Yes, there is a risk of suffering from orthosomnia, a disorder closely associated wi th connected objects, which is
Don’t we risk no longer sleeping well simply through trying too hard?
the European Community authorised the free sale of melatonin. In Switzerland, it can only be obtained on prescription. Melatonin is a very effective hormone with very few side effects. However, if we take it in a way that is not adapted to our biological rhythm, we risk suffering even more. It is essential that a doctor has analysed how an individual’s internal clock functions.
affecting more and more people. It is the obsession with sleeping well. The name of this disease was coined in 2017, at the same time as the democratization of these connected objects tracking sleep. It is inspired by orthorexia, which is the obsessive quest for healthy eating. However, we cannot influence our sleep by our own will alone, as it is managed solely by the brain. However, we can adapt our behaviour, use common sense and, in many cases, our sleep will respond favourably. But there is no need for exaggerated behaviour which risks creating anxiety that will certainly disrupt sleep and becoming a new and perverse search for performance.
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